(Washington, April 1) In two crucial decisions, the Court in Judicial Watch’s Filegate lawsuit has ordered that discovery and an ex parte hearing proceed to determine whether there is a Clinton White House connection to the release by the Clinton Defense Department of Linda Tripp’s Privacy Act information about her alleged prior arrest. If so, this would buttress claims that FBI files – also covered by the Privacy Act – had also been misused by The White House. The White House is a defendant in Judicial Watch’s $90 million class action lawsuit on behalf of those victimized by Filegate.

Crucial in this inquiry was an apparent decision by Secretary William Cohen to blame a career employee, Clifford Bernath, rather that Clinton political appointee, Kenneth Bacon, for the Privacy Act violation. Pentagon spokesman Bacon works closely with The White House – but has, unconvincingly, denied White House involvement. In its decisions, the Court noted:

....the documents pertaining to an apparent pattern of behavior by the Department of Defense to spotlight the actions of a career government employee, Bernath, but to hide the role of the political appointee that initiated the entire disclosure process, Bacon, is troubling. This pattern includes drafting responses to congressional inquiries that include this deception.

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....It is reasonable to believe that conversations between Bacon and Secretary Cohen may shed light on the cover-up alleged by plaintiffs.

"The release of Privacy Act information by the Clinton Defense Department is exactly the kind of pattern of abuse demonstrated by the Clinton White House in Filegate, Travelgate and the ongoing smear campaign, which George Stephanopoulos termed the ‘Ellen Rometsch strategy.’ (Stephanopoulos has refused to name the source of the his information, claiming a journalist’s privilege.) However, Tonya Flynt, Larry Flynt’s daughter, has said that her father likely has access to FBI files, through James Carville. With the impending release of more dirt about Republicans by Flynt in this month’s Hustler pornography magazine, it would appear that The White House’s smear tactics are continuing as ‘insurance’ that the Clinton scandals are not resurrected by Congress – particularly in light of the exploding Chinagate scandal, a scandal which also affects Al Gore," stated Judicial Watch Chairman Larry Klayman and President Tom Fitton. Copies of the Court’s decisions are available from Judicial Watch on request.